Luke 24:6

My Notes

What Does Luke 24:6 Mean?

The angels at the empty tomb deliver a message with two parts: a fact and a command. The fact: "He is not here, but is risen." The command: "remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee." The resurrection isn't just something new. It's something He already told them about. They don't need new revelation. They need to remember what was already revealed.

The phrase "He is not here" is the negative statement: the tomb is empty. The expected thing (a body) is absent. But the negative is immediately followed by the positive: "but is risen." The absence isn't vacancy. It's victory. The body isn't missing. It's alive. The tomb isn't robbed. It's vacated—by the occupant, from the inside.

The command to "remember" (mnēsthēte) asks the women to do the same thing the psalmists and prophets always asked: recall what God already said. The resurrection isn't an unannounced event. Jesus predicted it multiple times. The women's (and the disciples') failure to believe wasn't because of insufficient information. It was because of insufficient memory. They forgot what He said. The angels' job is to jog their memory.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What has God already told you that grief or crisis has made you forget? What do you need to remember?
• 2.The women had sufficient information—they just forgot. Is your current despair a lack of information or a failure of memory?
• 3.If the angels' job was to jog memory, not deliver new revelation, what 'angel' in your life has been reminding you of what God already said?
• 4.The tomb was empty because the occupant left from the inside. What 'tomb' in your life might already be vacated without you knowing?

Devotional

"He is not here, but is risen." Six words that changed everything. The tomb is empty—not because someone took the body, but because the body got up and left. The grave couldn't hold what it was given. Death met its match and lost.

The angels don't just announce the resurrection. They tell the women to remember: "remember how he spake unto you." Jesus told you this was going to happen. He said it. In Galilee. Before any of this started. The resurrection shouldn't have been a surprise. It was predicted. Plainly. Multiple times. The women's shock reveals how completely grief had erased their memory of His promises.

This is one of the most important spiritual dynamics in your life: remembering what God already said. The angels at the tomb didn't deliver new information. They delivered a reminder. Everything the women needed to know, they already knew. Jesus had already told them. The crisis had simply erased their memory of His words.

When you're standing at what looks like a sealed tomb—when death seems to have won, when the thing you loved seems permanently gone, when the end feels final—the instruction is the same as the angels gave: remember. Remember what He said. Remember the promises He made before the crisis. Remember the predictions He gave before the pain. The resurrection doesn't require new revelation. It requires remembered revelation. He told you. Remember.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture